Suu Kyi confined to home again (Hou

Subject: Suu Kyi confined to home again (House Arrest).
Suu Kyi confined to home again
******************************
The democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is back under effective
house arrest as Burma's military rulers enforce a fresh crackdown on
dissent after the biggest anti-Government protests in nearly a decade.
Ms Suu Kyi is restricted to her house in central Rangoon.
Security forces today barred her from attending a meeting with leaders of
her National League for Democracy.
An army officer called at the house last night to confirm the
detention order after police erected street barricades blocking access to
journalists and party workers.
A spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi said it was unclear how long the
authorities intended to detain the Nobel Peace Prize laurate, who was
released in July last year after six years under house arrest.
"We don't know if this is permanent, but no one is allowed to go
out or to come in. We are calling it unlawful cinfinement," the spokesman
said in a telephone interview.
Earlier Ms Suu Kyi appealed for international "moral and
practical support" after security forces yesterday broke up a rally and
protest march that drew several thousand students and workers on to
Rangoon's streets.
"I would like the world to know that the repression in Burma is
getting worse," Ms Suu Kyi told the former Commonwealth Secretary-General
Sir Sonny Ramphal, who is chairing a conference of democracy campaigners
in Cape Town.
Military authorities said several hundred students rounded up
after yesterday's protest had all been released. But league sources said
at least five party members were believed still to be in detention and
the whereabouts of scores of students were unknown.
After dispersing the demonstrators outside Rangoon's Shwetagon
Pagoda at dawn yesterday, security forces erected barricades outside Ms
Suu Kyi's house, forcing the cancellation of a scheduled news conference.
Ms Suu Kyi's spokesman said the blockade had also forced a
planned party meeting with about 200 league delegates from the southern
district of Mergui to move to the nearby party headquarters.
He said Ms Suu Kyi remained in good spirits despite the
restrictions on her movements. "She has been througth this before but she
is very strong, as always," he said.
In her telephone conversation with Sir Sonny Ramphal, Ms Suu Kyi
said the regime was stepping up its harassment and intimidation of her
supporters.
"We as a party are subjected to so much repression that it is
almost unbelievable," she said.
Ms Suu Kyi, who has previously called for economic sanctions
against the regime, said she would welcome "the moral and practical
support of right-thinking people".
The United State Government yesterday warned the ruling State Law
and Order Restoration Council not to harm any of those involved in the
latest demonstrations.
A State Department spokesman, Mr Nicholas Burns, called on the
regime to engage in "a systematic conversation" with the NLD and the
student movement about the future of the country.
[By Mark Baker, South-East Asia correspondent, Bangkok (5 December 1996)].
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------